


The Chrome Lodestar

by ThatDamnKennedyKid



Series: When Icarus Met The Sun [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Female Tony Stark, Infinity Gems, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-06-06 02:25:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15184691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatDamnKennedyKid/pseuds/ThatDamnKennedyKid
Summary: He'd met her for the first time at some upscale party. But that was years ago, both of them different people. All that was fine in his world, but he wished the Time stone would calm the fuck down.





	1. Old Favours

**Author's Note:**

  * For [QueenieKildare](https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenieKildare/gifts).



Tony Stark had never been super special in his mind, and yet he'd never much been able to take his eyes off her when they were in the same room. They had been to a few of the high-society parties together after graduation, but it became more frequent in their later years. He'd never touched her or tried to like some of his colleagues, felt a little adverse to the idea. He chalked it up to ingrained sexism for her promiscuity. 

He didn't really have that excuse now. 

* * *

She'd accepted it pretty easily when Thor had zapped over to her place in Malibu and thrust the Tesseract, the Sceptre and something he called the Aether at her and told her to keep it safe. He'd gone without any more instruction than that, which she chose to consider a compliment. At least someone on the team thought she was competent. 

So she'd stored them in the vault she'd used to store her suits before the Mandarin attack. Then she got to work on her suits and didn't think much about it until JARVIS informed her that someone was in her living room. 

"What the fuck, Stephen?"

He turned to face her, years since their last encounter, and it was like looking at the sun. The Time stone began to rattle in its cage. He grabbed the amulet, flicking the metal. "Calm down, you stupid rock."

She crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow at him. "You've got some nerve showing up here after turning down Rhodey's surgery."

He scowled, partly at the reminder and partly because it was still hard to look at her. Magic was such an odd thing. "Well, as soon as I did, I immediately drove my car off a cliff and lost the use of my hands. So I think we can call that one karmatically even."

Her stubborn posture immediately vanished. " . . . You drove your car off a cliff?"

Oh yeah, shit. It sounds bad explained like that. "I was speeding, clipped another vehicle and spun out of control off the edge of a cliff."

"Oh. Yeah, I'll consider our karma balanced. Next question, how the hell did you get inside my house?"

"Magic."

"I never took you for a comedian."

"You think you can really joke about that after Loki and Thor?"

She frowned. "They're manipulating energy somehow. I just haven't had time to test them to figure it out. But you're distracting me. Tell me what you want if you went to all this trouble to find me."

She wasn't exactly hard to find - this particular address she gave out on international television and her other place used to have her name on the side of it - but he wasn't going to point that out just this second. "I need your help."

"I'm not in the business of loans."

He snorted. "Don't worry, I already filed bankruptcy paperwork. That's done with."

She frowned again in concern, more sympathetic by the moment. "What the hell happened to you?"

He took a deep breath, trying to gather his thoughts. "I had a vision."

"What?"

"Of the end of the world."

She slowly squared her shoulders. "Tell me."

"Let's go somewhere you're more likely to believe me."

* * *

"Why didn't you tell me? Any of it?" She looked downright stricken, more so than even Christine had.

"I didn't really think we were friends. And I was an asshole."

She laughed bitterly. "If you haven't noticed, I'm running a charity for assholes."

"Yes, I heard about the dysfunction in the team. I'm sorry."

She waved it off. "Don't worry about it."

"As for the vision . . . "

She took a swallow of the brandy he'd offered. "Go for it."

"There's an extraterrestrial threat on the horizon. Thanos, the Mad Titan. He has committed genocide on hundreds of planets and from each captured world, takes children to make his assassins. I don't know why, but he wants the Infinity Stones, the ones you and I possess."

"What makes you think I have any of those things?"

He opened the locket, the green stone flaring brightly. He closed it when he felt it  _move_ , hoping the panic was well and hidden on his face. "That is the Time Stone. It is my duty as the Sorcerer Supreme to protect the Time Stone with my life. It also grants me a certain level of awareness of its siblings. You have three others hidden inside your vault - Mind, Space and Reality."

"The Sceptre, Tesseract and Aether."

"Precisely."

"Thor came back to give them to me a few weeks ago."

"I know. There's likely unrest on Asgard he's had to deal with." Thor didn't present as the brightest, but he was cunning when it suited him and he wouldn't make a move like that without cause. Not to mention the whole . . .  _Odin_ thing.

"Pfft. And here I was, all complimented." Her face fell flat again, serious, and that stupid glow brightened. "What's your plan then, my good Doctor?"

"That's what I was hoping you would help me with."

"You're serious."

"Tony, I wouldn't break into your house and tell you I'm a wizard if it wasn't absolutely necessary to the world's survival."

"Point taken." She sat back, thoughtful. "Well,  _my_ pretty little gems don't look anything like yours. We've got to do something about that first."

"What do you recommend?"

"I wanna smash 'em."

 

 


	2. Not In This House

"Tony-"

"Be serious right now." She scowled. He scowled back, equally petulant. "Pick some goddamn colours."

"We're not doing this."

"Like fuck we're not."

"I'm not even staying with you that long-"

"And I cannot deal with you looking like you're gonna zap me to Neverland, Tinkerbell, so pick some colours for some fucking suits and what you kind of fit you like for your jeans."

He scowled harder. "You're being impossible. There's nothing wrong with my clothes."

"Do you even have a second pair?"

That stopped him.

She turned to the flustered attendant. "We'll go with blue-grey, pale, and charcoal navy. Silver and sapphire ties as well, if you please. I'm going to say straight leg boot cut for the jeans. I'll also need a grey sports jacket and two casual shirts. No buttons, but not polo."

"Right away, Miss Stark."

"Tony, stop."

"I could have sworn I told you I was running a charity for assholes. Personally funded." She took a breath and winced, lowering her voice and visibly trying not to cough. "You'd love it there. Fit right in."

"Tony, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." She replied, too fast. "I'm peachy."

He raised an eyebrow, angrier this time. "I'm a fucking doctor. You think I can't tell when something's wrong?"

She grabbed his wrist and pulled him in. Her expression said she wasn't fucking around and he was suddenly very aware of his own mortality. He'd learned combat, yes, but she had the physical strength to wear the armour - something that didn't predict her movements nor assist her flight very much - and the combat skills necessary to be able to melee fight Captain America and the Winter Soldier at the same time. Even without her suit she could seriously injure and possibly kill him.

"Look, Draco, this isn't the time or the place so let it go. Right now."

He nodded mutely, really scared of her. Also unexpectedly arousing. Never had a lady threaten him with death and mean it before. 

"Why are you so insistent on buying me clothes anyway?"

"Uh, you have no money and I can't honestly let you only have Renaissance fair clothing?" She wrinkled her nose at him. "You say that like I need more reason."

"That can't be all of it."

"You might have been a doctor, Strange, and had glamorous apartments and beautiful cars, but you never had the kind of money to buy land in New York and not really think about it. Avengers Tower? I own it from the basement to the sky and all the ground it's sitting on. i've got money to spare that's got money to spare. I've already got Wong a subscription to a food delivery service. You guys were looking a little slim when I saw your fridge."

"Okay, I'll grant you that one. But we can also summon food with magic whenever we want."

"You need the energy to start using that magic somewhere." She raised an eyebrow. "Trust me, since I got this flashlight, I've been nothing but a good girl about my diet and know more about kale than I'd ever dreamed."

"If I let you buy me these clothes and I wear them like a real boy, will you let me look at your chest?"

She fell silent, tense. "Why?"

"I think the base has been shifted. If you let me look, I'll probably be able to help you."

"You've got yourself a deal, Doctor."

* * *

He stopped at the top of the stairs to the sunken living room and spun around. "Satisfactory?"

"It'll do."

"You're impossible."

"It's part of my charm." She folded the other pair of jeans, setting it aside next to his folded leggings and robes. 

He stopped at them, touching the edges of the crisp lines. "When did you learn how to fold a robe?"

"Japan." She replied. "Kimonos are way bigger and more unwieldy. Same with the yukata."

He looked up at her and really took her in. Pushing aside the magic so he could just look at her, he was somewhat stunned by what he saw. 

A woman in her late fourties with emerging crow's feet surrounding too-bright and too-dark eyes. She was slim, but in a lean way. She was evidently muscular, but filled out her clothes instead of stretching them. She was, in that moment, soft and kind and beaten down into a hard edge. 

But she glowed, so bright and so blinding. The Stone wouldn't let him forget it for long. She was an ordinary woman trying to do what she thought was best, trying to help make sure everyone makes it home every night. And there was certainly something admirable about someone who would stick to that path even when it has rewarded her with nothing but heartache and pain. 

"Will you let me see your chest now?"

She froze. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. I think - can figure out what's wrong, even if I may not be able to help."

She took a deep breath for courage, then pulled her shirt over her head. She turned to him, sitting on the couch and staunchly looking just to the left of his expression. 

"Oh, Tony."

"Yeah, I know." Idly, as if moving without thought, her fingers traced the rim. 

"No." He reached out and skimmed lightly along the surface of the Reactor. "Tony, the socket wall has been forced deeper into your chest than it normally sits. Look, you can see the stretch marks."

She sighed. "Yeah, I know. But they can only help me if I go under and they break my ribs to realign it."

"That's not what I would have done." He muttered unintentionally. "But I might have another solution."

"I'm all ears."

"I can use magic to pull the socket out a little at a time until it sits where it's supposed to."

She seemed wary. "You can do that?"

"I can't exactly use my hands to do it anymore, but my magic is perfectly stable."

She glanced off to the side. "Okay. Try."

Hands braced on either ribs of the Reactor, he reached out tendrils of his magic and grabbed hold of the cylindrical socket wall, gently, gently easing it up, up, up until it wasn't crushing her lungs anymore. 

"If you don't mind me asking, how did this happen?"

She winced. "Steve smashed his shield into the Reactor to halt the power to the suit. He slammed it right down."

He'd used to hate small-talking as a surgeon. He didn't mind it so much anymore. "I'm sorry Tony."

"Don't be. You weren't there."

"Still. It's not fun to have someone shit on you."

"I know." She muttered, low enough that it was probably for herself more than him. 

The socket wall suddenly clicked into place and Tony gasped like she'd been punched in the stomach. 

"Is that where it's-"

She threw her arms around his neck, holding him tightly. Her entire body, once the shock of pain eased off, melted with relief against him and she began to cry. 

"Tony?"

"It hurt so fucking bad." She whimpered. "It hurt so bad, Stephen."

He swallowed thickly. "Well, I'm a doctor. It's my job to fix people."

She sat up and kissed him hard on the mouth. "Thank you anyway. It- it means a lot to me."

And it was at that moment that he realized he was pre-approved to get totally screwed. 

 


	3. A Lady With A Hammer

Watching her work was kind of humbling. 

He was a doctor, of course, and was no stranger to complex things. That said, she zipped through equations without looking, ran simulations while already building something better and wrote one thing while looking at another. And once she was on a streak, mind running a thousand equations, she didn't stop. 

"I didn't realize that all that information about kale precluded sleep." He groused, sitting on a couch some feet back. 

"Can't have everything." She replied, distracted. How she'd managed to hear him at all this deep in her work was beyond him. 

"Tony, you need to stop."

"What I need to do is break the colloumb barrier on the Tesseract without blowing up my house."

"No," He stood and laid a hand on her shoulder, "you need to sleep."

"You underestimate the amount of tech I have in this house." She replied, shrugging it off. "I can take care of myself, Strange."

"My opinion it is far more founded in medical science than yours."

"Well, when I need a babysitter, I'll have Pepper pencil you in."

"Tony, enough."

She spun around up like a shot of fury. "I've been taking care of myself for fourty years,  _Stephen_ , and I'm not dead yet."

"You seem to be under the assumption that I want you just to not die." He snapped back. "You shouldn't be living your life based on your body's threshold of punishment. Take care of it like you do your suits and it will reward you."

"Stuff the bullshit."

He threw his hands up in the air, exasperated. "Oh my God, is it so fucking hard to believe that I actually care about your well-being?"

"Yes!" She yelled back, then abruptly froze. 

All of his ire drained away. Not many people could argue with her, she hardly ever gave anyone the chance, and in public she was fully armed with sunglasses and sarcasm. Not in her own home, surrounded by her machines and her own safety. She hadn't anticipated this attack, hadn't been able to throw up her shields in time and all of the cracks and shatters were on display. 

"Oh, Tony." He breathed. 

"Don't!" She snapped, raising her hands defensively. "Don't. I don't want any of your pity or your sympathy-"

He reached passed to pull her in, tucking her against his chest. She remained still for a moment, waiting for the next blow.

"Nothing makes it better." He said. "Nothing makes it hurt less."

"Yeah, well, when Captain America tries to kill you, it's a real wake up call on where you sit in the grand scheme of things."

"Ever stop to consider you were running a self-funded charity for assholes?"

Her laugh was hoarse. "Once or twice."

"Rogers' actions, at the end of day, will always be self-motivated. Whatever reasons he had for saving Barnes, for fighting you, they belong to him. They're not yours."

"I know that."

"Then stop taking the blame for everyone." He snorted. "Next you'll be telling me how falling off the cliff was your fault because you sent me Rhodes' surgery specs."

She smacked her head off his chest. "Nah, that one's on you."

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I know."

"You're not going to take care of me. I'm a grown ass woman."

"Watch me." He pulled back to meet her gaze. "I'm a grown ass man and just got through a hard lesson on why you need other people."

She raised an eyebrow. 

"Yeah, magic saved my life as did the other magicians and I stopped the World Ender from destroying the planet by dying over and over."

Both eyebrows were raised.

"What the fuck?" She laughed. 

"Yeah. You seem a little more sane now, don't you?"

"Careful, I've always been turned on by crazy." 

"Well, you're not lacking yourself."

She smirked, confident and powerful again, back in her element of chaos. "Don't have to tell me. The sex tapes don't do me justice."

"Miss Stark, are you trying to seduce me?"

"If it looks like I'm trying, then I'm not trying hard enough." She turned away from him, back to the workbench. 

"Oh no." He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her over to the elevator. "You're taking a nap. I did not just go through all this to let you continue working."

"No, Stephen, I'm not tired!" She flailed, but not putting any serious strength into it. If she wanted to be free, she would be. "Stephen!"

"No. I'll nap with you if I have to." He hauled her over to her bed, but right when they got to the threshold, she went lax, dead weight in his arms. "Oh fuck."

She giggled, starting to squirm like a little kid. 

"Tony, c'mon." He groused. "Bed."

"No." She said petulantly and managed to slip from his grasp, immediately bolting for the elevator. Fuck, she was fast. He tackled her like a toddler, doing the only thing he could think of to keep her down. 

He started to tickle her. 

"No, no, nonono-!" She squealed, twisting and jerkin as he found sensitive spots. 

"Not made of iron now, are you?" He teased, panting in exertion. She was hard to keep pinned. 

"No, stop, please-" She giggled, laughing brightly and loudly. 

"Never! Submit to sleep!"

Her eyes glinted menacingly and he immediately knew he fucked up. He felt her hands on his ribs and it was all over. 

"No!" He tried to bite down the instinctive laughs, if for nothing more than personal dignity, but wasn't successful.

She was grinning like a maniac  as her thighs clamped around his legs, limiting his room to move and increasing her leverage. 

"Suffer!" She declared, getting her hands under his arms. 

"No, Tony, please, mercy!" He panted, trying to get ahold of himself. 

"No time for mercy, Tinkerbell." She smirked, leaning down too blow a raspberry into his shoulder. He yelped and jolted, dislodging her just long enough to get out from under her. She let him go, deep laughs echoing down the halls from both of them as they caught their collective breath. 

He rolled back over, throwing an arm and leg over her. "Okay. Now I'm tired."

"Aww, magician ain't got no stamina." She managed before yawning herself. "Shit."

"Does Iron Man need some warm milk?" He groused playfully. 

"Nah." She let herself go lax. 

"Sir, I do suggest you not sleep on the hallway floor." JARVIS cut in. 

"Augh." He heaved himself up. "C'mon. Bed's that way."

"Floor's carpeted." She murmured. 

"Yeah, but your back isn't going to thank you. You're already going to be sleeping in jeans." He tugged on her hand, feeling for just an instant like a little boy with his crush. "Let's go."

"Mremph." She hauled herself up, hair falling scattered all around her shoulders. "You win, Doctor. And I don't say that often."

"I'm honoured." He snorted, helping her to her feet and meandering with her until they could collapse onto the bed. 

* * *

He didn't remember falling asleep, persay, but he hadn't expected her to still be there when he awoke. 

She was laying on her side, partially draped over him. This close, it wasn't hard to see the scars from old wounds, where fragments of hot or jagged metal had torn through her. She was a hardy creature, made so only by force of will. And if there was nothing else that the Elder One had taught him, force of will was a dangerous, powerful tool. 

"Whatcha staring at, Sparky?" She murmured into his shoulder. "Not much here to see right now."

"You've got more than me."

She snorted, slowly pushing herself up and yawning, stretching lazily and wincing as joints popped and cracked. 

"That's not supposed to happen until you're in your late sixties, Tony."

"I don't  _ask_ to be thrown through buildings." She countered. 

"Fair." He sat up as she reached for a brush, quickly and harshly yanking it presentable. 

"Shower, Doctor?"

"And what would the conditions be?"

"No sex in it until I've broken the Stones out of their cages?"

"I can live with that."

She glanced down at his crotch. "Can you?"

"You think I've been getting laid being a  _sorcerer_?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. 

"Hmm. I suppose not. But there's a lot of kinky people in New York. I mean, people wanna fuck Pennywise."

"Pennywise?"

"The clown from the Stephen King book-to-movie."

"Oh." He made a face. 

"But you can only get one thing you want out of me a day, and you already made me sleep. So you're on your own with that."

He nudged her with his shoulder, smiling. "I'm not worried."

She grinned back. "Alright, pretty boy. Up and up. Shower, then I want to meet your Time Stone so I know what I'm looking for."

He groaned as he stood. "Meet the Time Stone? What, is it my dog?"

She winked. "Maybe. Depends on how often you have to take it out to pee."

"Get in the shower, Stark."

"Miss Stark to you, you naughty boy." She disappeared into the bathroom with a ringing laugh. Free and easy and sweet, like she had been when he'd seen her for the first time in a Rising Youths gala. Her dress had been a red not dissimilar to the Iron Man shade and looked like water around her as she moved. He'd been in an ill-fitting rented suit, far too aware of his patchy facial hair and stress acne to approach her. But then, as now, she had glowed effortlessly. Maybe he was magic back then and didn't even know it.

Maybe she was magic and had never known. 

* * *

"Don't touch it!"

The levitating Stone, mere inches from her fingertips, halted. "Uhh, why? Don't you touch It all the time?"

"No, I harness it's power in my spells. I've never touched the Stone physically and never will. The energy it contains would destroy my body and likely the city I would be in."

"So, maybe in space?"

"Stark, did you even hear me?"

She pouted. "I liked it better when you called me Tony."

"Yes, but calling you Stark gets you to listen to me."

"Honestly, manner of address has ever guaranteed you my attention or cooperation." She returned. 

"Fine, then. Whatever. Point being, do not touch the Stone. Or any of them, for that matter."

"Okay, fine. Party popper." She stuck her tongue out at him. "What I do have is a way to break the Space and Mind Stones free. The Aether is . . . Okay as is. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

"Alright. How?"

"It's not going to kill anybody, but it might cut power to a decent portion of Miami."

"Tony-' he warned. 

" I want a coordinated EMP/sonic blast to shatter the glass encasing the Stones. That will allow me to bypass the barrier entirely and not actually activate either machine. Sound Gucci?"

He frowned. "Why would it be Gucci branded?"

She sighed in a put-upon manner. "Doesn't the news keep you old people updated on modern slang?"

"I'm not old."

"You're not really selling it right now. I didn't need two adopted children to tell me what that meant, even thought I have them."

"You have kids?"

She waved him off. "They're other people's kids."

"Wha-"

"Not important. What I need from you, however, is to create a barrier that will lock any possible energy emissions inside this workshop and not explode. But, as the ultimate backup, send yourself back in time and tell me 'The shoes don't fit'. I'll know what it means."

"What  _does_ it mean?"

"We said it in MIT, when bolts or screws were the wrong size."

"Oh."

"Then we'll keep trying on borrowed time until we're successful."

"You're putting a lot of faith in something you don't believe in."

"When did I ever say I don't believe in magic? I'm just not personally a fan. Besides, you're trusting me with explosives."

"I thought you said it was an EMP and sonic pulses?"

"Anything's an explosive when you try hard enough. It all depends on what you want e'sploded."

"I'm my God."

"Save that for the first time I blow you up."

He shook his head but followed her deeper into the workshop, where the three robots had been busy all night under JARVIS' express supervision. 

"So, do I get to dress like a wizard again?"

 


	4. We Live Lives In The Rain

The road from here to there is never as long as it looks. The distance from beginning to end always feels too fast when the ending is tragic. 

The very truth of the matter is that Thanos was faster than them. 

He crushed the Asgardians, then came to the source of the energy surges.  There was little warning, little time to prepare. 

* * *

She was watching the Mind Stone turn in fascination when that damned little phone began to ring. She pulled it from her pocket, flipping it open. 

"Steve."

Stephen sat forward slowly on the couch, watching her intently. 

"Tony." He breathed on the other end of the line. "I need you."

"Oh yeah? Do you know how to swim because you pretty thoroughly burned that bridge."

"Bruce appeared a few days ago, landed in Wakanda and warned that a Mad Titan was on his way. Thanos, the man that sent Loki. And he's on his way here."

She can tell her face is going ashen. "Where are we making our stand?"

"Wakanda. Bruce says Thor gave you the Stones?"

"Yeah, he did."

"Bring them. He'll be drawn to the energy and Wakanda has the tech to shield us from the initial assault."

"Okay. We'll be there in a few hours."

"We?"

She hung up. 

"Rogers?" Stephen asked softly. 

"Gear up." She managed passed the lump in her throat. "We've got to go. Thanos is on his way."

He nodded resolutely, hoping she wasn't going to falter last minute. 

* * *

She doesn't acknowledge Rogers or the other traitors, going straight for Bruce when she lands the Quinjet.

"He's coming?"

"In force." Bruce panicked. 

She held her old friend close. 

"Who are you?" Romanov asked, poking him. 

"None of your business." Stephen replied benignly, but with pointed politeness. 

"I think it is." Wilson insisted. 

"I think your opinion is invalid." Tony cut in, taking him frankly by the hand and leading him and Bruce away. 

T'Challa intercepted them on their way to meet him. 

"Your Grace." She stopped, surprised. "Thank you for letting us use Wakanda as our holding grounds. I know this is a lot to ask of anybody, certainly someone so new to interacting with the world." 

"This supersedes our own politics, I think." He smiled. 

She smiled back, a bitter, regretful thing. 

* * *

"Tony-"

"I don't have time." She waved him off. 

Stephen and Bruce look up and watch Rogers stand next to her stiffly. She's bent over a small motherboard and her case of Infinity Stones. 

"I wanted to talk to you is all."

"Unless it's to say I was right, I don't care."

Rogers' face morphed into a scowl. "It's always about you."

She spun around on him. "Is it? Or is this about you not even being able to say I was right when the thing I predicted is right over our heads? How many people have to die before you'll admit I was right?"

"It is always about you, about how you know everything."

"I picked up when you called, didn't I?" Her scowl was darker and more menacing than his. Time rattled in its cage against Stephen's chest, the box next to her beginning to vibrate. "I swallowed my pride, picked up that fucking phone and did what you asked of me. Because this is more than me. But we can't work together if you don't trust me. This is the end of the world, Rogers. The actual fucking end of the world."

"He's my friend."

She stepped up, close enough to exchange body heat. "I wish you had of just killed me in that cave. Ripped my goddamn heart out and let me fucking die. But mercy has never been a strong suit of yours. I don't know if you've noticed, but life's like TV; not in black and fucking white."

The vibration escalated to rattling, drawing Bruce's concerned eyes. 

"So," Her voice was low and dangerous, "if you're not here to apologize or otherwise make amends without blaming me, then get out."

Rogers straightened, clenched his jaw, and left. 

The rattling stopped. Time settled. Tony collapsed into her chair, took a deep breath, pushed back the tears and anger and betrayal, and got back to making her last minute adjustments. 

* * *

The creatures clawing at the defensive grid make the most dismal shrieking noises as they scrabble and claw at the shield. 

Stephen stood beside her, the gems locked tightly in her nano armour and Time buzzing magically in it cage, spoiling for a fight. 

"This is it." She said, voice tinny from processing. "It was nice knowing you, Stephen."

"You too, Tony." He wanted to tell her they'd win, that she was wrong in the best sense, but he didn't want to lie to her, either. 

* * *

It doesn't end well for them. 

They're overwhelmed, outgunned and outnumbered. There was never a way for them to gather the strength to overcome the Mad Titan with so little warning. 

It winds up being Tony who faced him down last, her suit even more impressive and versatile than her last one. But it doesn't save her, because nothing can. 

She winds up beaten into the ground, bruised and bleeding and broken in Wakanda fieldland. She fights him as best she can, parts breaking off as she takes his punishment, but she's not got what she needs to win. 

She winds up in the dirt next to Stephen, stapled to the ground with her own blade. 

"It's over." Thanos declares. 

And for a moment, Stephen really thinks it is. 

 

 

 

 


	5. Open Wounds That Heal With Grace

Okay, so, when Tony talks, people don't listen. 

Sure, they listen when she's a keynote speaker or giving a lecture or discussing money, but they don't listen when she  _talks_. 

And maybe that was really nice, in their brief time, to have Stephen there. He liked to banter, to speak and to listen. He helped her because he could and never brought it up after. He didn't think she owed him anything. And by rights, she didn't, but none of the other men in her life thought that way (except her Brucie-bear). Even Rhodey sometimes. 

And yeah, it was too good to ever reach the fairytale ending one would dream of it that was her life. She never what she wanted. Not ever. 

But perhaps her most useful skill had always been her ability to pull something - and more importantly,  _successful_ something - out of nothing. And perhaps she didn't give it as much credit as it deserved. 

So, when she looked up at the looming Titan above her, she might have wanted to consider this fact before she spoke. 

"Fuck, I just want that stupid glove to blow up."

She never counted on the thing actually  _blowing up._

* * *

Thanos' roar echoed all across the battlefield and brough it to a standstill. 

"What the fuck?" Stephen wheezed in disbelieving confusion. 

"Holy shit." She wheezed back, pulling herself out of the ground and dislodging the blade from her body. 

Thanos had been blown some feet back, his arm obliterated from the elbow down and his collected Stones hovering faux-innocentlywhere his glove had been. 

"Power and Soul." The left arm of her armour had been torn away somewhere in the melee and her skin tingled at their proximity. She opened the hatch that contained the other Stones and they floated up to their siblings, even the janky Reality. "Hey guys. Did you do that?"

Power flushed purple, buzzing almost. Tony looked just as surprised as Stephen felt. 

"What manner of Witch are you? An Immortal?" Thanos asked. 

"I don't think so." She replied, eyes shifting to the Mind Stone. "Do you guys answer to me now, or something?"

They all shivered, Time rattling the pendant. She looked back at him, assessing it briefly. 

"Let it go for me?"

With a deep breath, he undid the spell, opening the locket and the Time Stone shot right to her, hitting her hand and  _vanishing_. 

She gasped, like it burned, then slowly looked to the others. "Oh. I see."

"See what?" He pressed.

"I understand." She was speaking to the Stones. "You were waiting for me to say yes."

The Stones all shivered and rushed her, disappearing into her skin. She went utterly still. 

"That's not possible." Thanos managed to get to his feet. "Anyone who weilds the Stones needs the Gauntlet."

Suddenly, like it was coming from everywhere, she began to laugh. The menacing creatures under Thanos' command whimpered and slunk back. They crowded against the barrier now to get away from rather than move toward her. 

"Not true." She replied, swaying a little unsteadily. "Each time the previous wielder dies, another is chosen. The Stone have never managed to coalesce into one place before to meet their wielder in person." She smirked, eyes closed. "But thanks. Now they've got me, and there's nothing you can do about it."

"I can't lose, I've come this far." Thanos came running, intent on taking back what was rightfully his. 

Her armour fell off, her AC/DC shirt and jeans on full display. 

"Put your armour back on!" Stephen pleaded. 

She turned back to look at him. Her eyes, once a lustrous brown-black, where shining silver at him. 

"I won't need it anymore." She replied, turning back to Thanos and pointing her palm at him, much the same way she did repulsed beams. A shock of purple light tore straight through him, leaving a gap where his organs should be. 

The world shifted around them, a red pulse sweeping the area, undoing damage. Amber light swept over the bodies of the fallen, and they suddenly gasped to life, confused and amazed. 

"I am your god." She said, contained to just their ears, Thanos' dying realization of her ultimate nature. "Thank you for bringing us a home."

* * *

It was . . . odd to describe what followed. 

It was like she snapped her fingers and the opposing force vanished. The leaders of Thanos' army wound up standing there, alone. 

"Go get 'em." Tony's voice was everywhere at once, like how waves drown out everything else on the shore.

VERONICA broke apart and the Hulk entered the field, smashing the two into a vicious pile of blue-green goop with the consistency of paste.

For Stephen, sitting next to Tony on the field was perhaps the strangest thing of all. Maybe even the strangest thing to happen in his life. 

"How do you feel?"

"I don't know." She cocked her head. "I can see sounds, so that's a little disconcerting. I can also feel what everyone's thinking. Also odd."

"Huh." He sat back, propped up on his hands and looking out over the sunset. "What I am feeling?"

"Exhausted, with an undercurrent of romantic cuddles."

He blinked and glanced over at her. God, those silver eyes were hard to look at. "Cuddles?"

"Your brain, man. Not mine."

"No, you're the human space rock case."

"Okay, I'll let you have that one, but that really is what you're feeling."

"No, it's not."

"Stephen." She levelled him with a look. "Just kiss me."

He firmly tramped down the desire. "What makes you think I want to kiss you?"

"Your pout, for one."

"Is that the Mind Stone?"

She blindsided him by flicking his forehead. "I thought you were a genius brain surgeon. No, the Stones are only semi-sentient. That's why they need me. Jackass."

"If I want to kiss you so much and you know it, why don't you just take the initiative to kiss me?"

Much like a schoolboy with a crush, when he made the challenge, he didn't believe she would be bold enough to accept it. Really, he should have known better, because this woman he was challenging was Tony Stark, and she didn't back down for anyone (except Pepper). 

"How was that, Tinkerbell? Are you a real boy now?" She smirked. 

"Try again." He muttered, dazed. "I'm not sure."

* * *

Three weeks and he was still waking up sore. 

"Your hands?"

"Always my hands." He huffed. "But you're really giving me a workout."

"I told you that I'm hard to handle. Not easy to blow through."

"Because of those damned stones."

"Um, excuse you. Don't underestimate how much dick I can take. Those reports in the Nineties? They actually undersell it."

"Oh my God."

"Yeah, and you chose me."

"Yeah, I did. To be fair, you're about the only person that can handle me being an asshole  _and_ magical at the same time."

"Well, I'm a space god, so we're even?"

"Yeah. I guess so."

He looked down at her, brown-black hair splayed brilliantly on the bed around them. Her eyes were back to black - would flare when the Stones did - and all the more stunning for it. 


	6. Epilogue: Opportunity

Tony abruptly looked up. "Stephen, I need you to open a portal right now."

He was on his feet in an instant, runes flaring around his hands. "Where to?"

"Mars."

"M- Mars?" He lowered his hand a little, frowning. "You want to go to an inhospitable planet?"

"Yes. I need to go. Right now."

With a sigh, he opened the portal. "Go on. If you die in space, I'm not coming to get you."

Her eyes flared silver and she smirked wickedly. "You think something as insignificant as no oxygen can kill me now? I'm basically a god."

"And so humble about it."

"What's the point of being an all-powerful space-goddess if I can't brag about it to you, Harry?"

He frowned. "Do you want a portal back to Earth or fly on your own?"

"Portal please." She winked flirtatiously and stepped through the portal. 

* * *

"Stephen, baby?"

He looked up from his book, finding Tony peering at him through the portal with a sickly-sweet smile on her face. "What do you want?"

"Go open the portal in the workshop?"

He sighed. "What the hell have you done? Am I going to have to cover something up?"

"I mean, probably not? Pretty please?"

"Fine, fine. Just get your head out of the portal before I cut it off."

"You're the best, Hermione!"

He snapped the portal shut faster than strictly necessary, her laughter following him anyway. He took his sweet time making his way down to the workshop, including grabbing a sweater and making a cup of coffee before he opened it again, over the old landing pad for the Mark II. 

"A little bigger, honey?"

With a put-upon sigh, he opened it wider. 

Frankly, he shouldn't be surprised. This was such an intensely  _Tony_ thing to do that he should have expected it as soon as he'd seen the news pop up on his phone. He's actually ashamed it took him until now to put together that  _this_ is what she so desperately needed to go to Mars for. 

"I know we already have a couple of bot kids," She started, levitating the Mars Rover  _Opportunity_ in after her, "but she was just so sad. And NASA already wrote her off."

"This is mostly on me. I should have made you fly there."

"But she'd have burnt up on exit and re-entry!" She pouted. "That would have been a tragic desecration of her corpse."

He threw his hands up in the air. "I don't even know what to do with you!"

She lowered Opportunity onto the tarmac, the portal vanishing behind them, then wrapped her arms around the bot's neck. "Maybe there's nothing to do with me. I have a soft spot for robots and that's not a crime."

He collapsed onto the couch, grabbing the coffee. "Are you even going to tell NASA and the rest of the world you have her?"

"No?" She made a face, then her mouth dropped open in realization. "I can save Spirit and Curiosity too! Open the portal back up!"

"I think this is plenty for now, thank you. Focus on fixing Opportunity and maybe,  _just maybe_ , I'll help you get the other two."

"They deserve the best for being such loyal girls." She pet Opportunity's camera. "I'm going to fix her right up, scrub her down and take her back with me to find her sisters. This is going to be amazing!"

"When my mother insisted that I would eventually have children, I don't think this is what she meant."

"Well, that's too bad. I don't do fleshy, breakable children. Only ones I can drop and fix."

He considered that for a moment. "I suppose that's for the best."

"You're not supposed to agree with me." She pouted. 

"You've practically adopted Peter and Harley, you seriously think you can't handle fleshy people?" He raised an eyebrow. "But I do think you'll feel a very parental level of pride watching three Mars rovers wandering around your backyard. Not that you need more robot dogs."

"Consider it adopting a retired military dog." She stroked the gouges in Opportunity's chassis. "She's done her time and served her country. She deserves to kick back and relax, look through grass and worms instead of dirt and rocks. I'll even give her a coloured camera and a connection to JARVIS who can play her all the Billie Holiday she could ever want to hear!"

This is not the strangest thing Tony's ever done with him (which says something about him, he thought), and he supposed it's not the worst thing to indulge her with. 

"One at a time, Tony. Spirit and Curiosity will still be there in a couple of days, but you need the space in your workshop first."

"You're right. I'm going to build them a garage to sleep in and a pen to keep them out of the ocean."

He sighed and stood, taking his coffee and leaving his girlfriend to the inevitable pitfall of creativity that would come from fixing a multi-million dollar space exploration probe into an oversize robo-dog.

* * *

Stephen woke up to the inquisitive poke of a metal prong, considerably more gentle than the machine's size would indicate. 

He still yelped and fell out of the bed. Opportunity beeped curiously at him, her camera twisting to the side in an approximation of a head tilt. 

"I spent all night mapping Mars and I'm pretty certain I know where her sisters are." Tony climbed up on top of Opportunity. a manic grin on her face. "C'mon. Time's a-wasting."

"You are actually insufferable."

"Yeah, well, it's my house. I can track Martian dust into it if I want."

He sighed. 

"On the upside, Oppy's big enough to ride into battle." She seated herself on the battery back of the robot, petting down the camera's support pole. 

"You're not going to calm down until they're all here, are you?"

"No. No, I am not."

He got up, dragging the blanket behind him back down into the workshop, doing his best to repress the fondness he felt for her. He'd managed to find the one person in all the world who could pack-bond with literally anything. It was endearing, a reminder of her innate humanity, despite her crazy silver-glowing eyes and the six world-ending stones that lived in her body. 

He opened the portal. "Well? Go get our other two kids."

She smile she broke into was so pure and heartwarming, he completely forgot for a moment that he was against stealing NASA's property. "Thank you!"

"Just go. It does actually take a energy to hold the portal open for long periods of time."

She ran through it, Oppy nipping at her heels with beeps that reminded him of R2-D2 to a Copyright-infringing degree. 

He sat back down on the couch, resting against Dum-E. "You'll never know what it's like to be second in your girlfriend's heart to a machine."

Dum-E was unsympathetic to his step-father's cause, simply tottling off to sweep up Oppy's dirt. 

"Oversized roomba." He muttered affectionately. 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In loving memory of Opportunity, the rover.

**Author's Note:**

> How does this fic sound so far?


End file.
